Shot-shy Jambos are dealt a Hammill blow
Craig Levein’s face was the definition of dismay after Hearts surrendered their joint Premiership lead, succumbing to a shock defeat at the hands of relegation candidates St Mirren.
It took a goal of the season contender from Adam Hammill to break the deadlock between the two sides but, in fairness, the shot-shy Edinburgh outfit never looked like scoring and they now have no goals in the last five games, a statistic that had Levein understandably irked.
“I’m fed up talking about the same thing and frustrated as you can imagine,” the manager growled.
“We had plenty of the ball and created chances but didn’t take them. The problem is scoring goals and I feel they are all waiting on someone else doing it. “When things are not going your way the last thing you need is someone to score from 45 yards.
“What I don’t want to do is get to a situation where I’m waiting for players to come back.
“There are loads of points to be played for between now and Steven (Naismith) and Uche (Ikpeazu) coming back.
“When it carries on like this for a little while it is something the players start to think about. We need to come up with something for next week when we play Rangers.”
Hearts were still without Scotland duo John Souttar and Christophe Berra as well as Naismith and Ikpeazu and it showed, looking sluggish and uninspired when in possession. The visitors created st mirren:
(4-4-2) D Rogers 6, P Mcginn 7, S Mcginn 5, K Magennis 6, S Jackson 6 D Mullen 82), J Baird 7, Ian Mcshane 6, A Jones 7, L Hodson 6, E Erhahon 7, A Hammill 9 (C Smith 70). Unused subs – D Lyness (Gk), C Cooke, M Willock, C Macpherson, A Eckersley. hearts:
(4-4-2) Z Zlamal 3, M Smith 5, J Dunne 5, P Haring 6, S Clare 5 (O Lee 54 4), A Djoum 6, C Wighton 3 (J Mulraney 46 4), B Garuccio 5 (D Mitchell 61 4), S Maclean 5, C Dikamona 6, C Morrison 6. Unused subs – C Doyle (Gk), O Bozanic, H Cochrane, M Godinho.
the first chance, with an overlapping Michael Smith finding an unmarked Steven Mclean at the back post but the striker screwed his shot wide of the upright, in what proved to be a false flag.
The Saints should have taken the lead on the half hour mark as a poor clearance in the Hearts defence fell straight to Kyle Magennis on the half volley, but the winger’s effort cannoned back off the bar with Zdenek Zlamalwell beaten.
Almost immediately after the restart,
Saints took the lead in sensational fashion. Adam Hammill collected the ball midway inside the opposition half after being supplied by Paul Mcginn and unleashed an unstoppable effort over the head of a startled Zlamal, who was a couple of yards off his line.
St Mirren could have rested on their laurels but deserved due credit for continuing to play purposefully while in front and they were duly rewarded through Hammill yet again in the 55th minute.